Grey Dove - a boat, an owner and a call for info

[magpie patrick]

All,

 

This rather poor quality image is of Grey Dove, a narrow beam pleasure cruiser (and that is about all I know of her as a boat) that belonged to Edmund Bastow. Edmund was a friend of Magpie the Elder's. altough some 20 years older, and lived alongside the L&L at Shipley. All information I have is relayed to me by MtE and I wouldn't have been that old. 

 

Grey Dove was built for Edmund (I think) and Edmund travelled extensively on it, Dad advised Edmund went down the Caldon to Froghall armed with planks and carpet to patch lock gates, and took on board several workmen as ballast to get through Froghall Tunnel. Dad joined Edmund on a run down from Nottingham to Torksey on one occasion. 

 

This image was given to me by the Coombeswood Canal Trust as part of some work I've been doing for them. The image is where there is now a factory over the line in Halesowen (the bridge carrying Mucklow Hill is on the background). It was me who identified the boat as being Edmund Bastow's boat. 

 

The third member of this unholy trinity of 60's canal enthusiasts was Jack Parkinson, born in 1923, midway between Edmund and Dad. he also often joined Edmund and was, according to the Online Transport Archive, a keen film maker and photographer of all transport with an eye for the scene. I think this is one of his photos but I'm not sure

 

So questions

 

Is this one Jack Parkinson's photos? 

Is there a better copy somewhere? 

Does anyone know any more about Grey Dove, either from knowledge of the boat or from recognising it as being a type or from a builder? 

Does anyone have a rough idea when the photo was taken - it may be the last boat to have got that far from Windmill End

If you wish to answer questions I haven't asked feel free! 

[Tim Lewis]

In the London Canal Museum we have a large (175 No.) number of pictures we call the E Bastow collection so I assume that they were taken by him. They were taken in June 1965 and showed progress of a trip around the waterways around London invl the Grand Union, Regents, Rivers Lea and Stort and the River Thames.

 

It is a fascinating collection mainly for me showing the last days of barge traffic.

 

Most of the pictures were taken from Grey Dove so there are lots of pictures of Grey Doves's roof but below are a selection of pictures of the boat.

 

Tim

 

 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Tim Lewis

[TheBiscuits]

Shipley you say?  Paging @fanshaft ...

 

David has forgotten more about the L&L than I've learned!

[Francis Herne]

At Coombeswood on the hardstanding is a similar plywood cruiser named 'Silver Heron', dating from around 1960 (I was told the exact year but have forgotten) and built for the current owner's parents. 

 

The cabin is different but the hull construction and particularly the carved wooden nameplates are very close, and obviously the names have a common theme, so I suspect there may be a connection.

I will try to find a photo.

Edited December 9, 2025 by Francis Herne

[magpie patrick]

10 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

 

 

 

 

Thanks Tim! Wonderful photos

 

I'm fairly certain the man in these pictures is Jack Parkinson, and the two women will be Jack's wife Joy, and Edmund's wife Winiifred, usually known as Winnie.

5 hours ago, Francis Herne said:

At Coombeswood on the hardstanding is a similar plywood cruiser named 'Silver Heron', dating from around 1960 (I was told the exact year but have forgotten) and built for the current owner's parents. 

 

I'd forgotten about that - I spoke to the owner when I was at Hawne Basin in February, but I've since been very ill and mislaid his contact details. I hadn't spotted the similarity with Grey Dove, partly because I only had a vague idea what Grey Dove looked like until know. 

 

If you find out please add it to the story.

[David Mack]

14 hours ago, Tim Lewis said:

In the London Canal Museum we have a large (175 No.) number of pictures we call the E Bastow collection so I assume that they were taken by him. They were taken in June 1965 and showed progress of a trip around the waterways around London invl the Grand Union, Regents, Rivers Lea and Stort and the River Thames.

 

It is a fascinating collection mainly for me showing the last days of barge traffic.

 

Most of the pictures were taken from Grey Dove so there are lots of pictures of Grey Doves's roof but below are a selection of pictures of the boat.

 

Tim

 

 

And, with reference to another recent discussion, showing that some locks had ladders in 1965!

[magpie patrick]

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

And, with reference to another recent discussion, showing that some locks had ladders in 1965!

 

I'd noticed that!

 

One major benefit of photos is the illustrate everything, not just that which the photographer intended

[fanshaft]

18 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

Shipley you say?  Paging @fanshaft ...

 

David has forgotten more about the L&L than I've learned!

Bastow- a good Yorkshire  name but I can't bring to mind where he might have lived near the canal.in Shipley. Jane Hills cottages but I think I'd have known him. Dockfield Rd?  There aren't many houses next to the canal in Shipley, even fewer back then  

[Stroudwater1]

16 hours ago, Francis Herne said:

At Coombeswood on the hardstanding is a similar plywood cruiser named 'Silver Heron', dating from around 1960 (I was told the exact year but have forgotten) and built for the current owner's parents. 

 

The cabin is different but the hull construction and particularly the carved wooden nameplates are very close, and obviously the names have a common theme, so I suspect there may be a connection.

I will try to find a photo.

Silver Heron is a Holt Abbott/ canal pleasurecraft boat. Silver Heron was one of the early ones, around 1957 possibly earlier. She’s a nice boat and hopefully will be back in the water soon. 
 

Im not sure there’s a direct link between the boats unless Grey Dove was built in Stone. Interesting the names have a similarity. 
 

Silver Heron was moored for years under wraps at Fazeley and before that in a shed type structure on the Macclesfield. 
 

Silver Heron pictured at Saul 2023 or 22. A beautiful boat. 
 

[BEngo]

From Tim's pictures I would say that Grey Dove hull  is either a Holt Abbot built boat, or was built to their plans.

[magpie patrick]

2 hours ago, fanshaft said:

Bastow- a good Yorkshire  name but I can't bring to mind where he might have lived near the canal.in Shipley. Jane Hills cottages but I think I'd have known him. Dockfield Rd?  There aren't many houses next to the canal in Shipley, even fewer back then  

 

This is where my memory may be at fault - I'd have been ten last time I saw Edmund and Winnie, so 1976, I remember being told it was Shipley but the house was above Bingley 5 rise, a relatively modern (by the standards of 1976) house. The type of house is accurate, the locations contradict...

[Stroudwater1]

49 minutes ago, BEngo said:

From Tim's pictures I would say that Grey Dove hull  is either a Holt Abbot built boat, or was built to their plans.

All Holt Abbott boats are recorded in an article in Waterways Journal  (number 19)a copy of which is temporarily mislaid by me so I can’t 100% say it’s not one. However I’m 99% sure it’s not.

 

If you compare the image of Silver Heron I posted the lines are very different. All of his cockpits had the familiar sloping. The windows are different. I’m not sure who made her, It could be a Dobson?? 
 

Holt Abbott boats never had a wooden cockpit cover, Taylor’s ones did but otherwise it’s not the lines of theirs. 
 

The article I think does mention collaboration but I’m pretty sure only with Stone. I seem to recall Stone boats also had the pleasing slope of wood where the cockpit is. 
 

 

Edited December 9, 2025 by Stroudwater1
Adding number

[Pluto]

14 hours ago, magpie patrick said:

 

This is where my memory may be at fault - I'd have been ten last time I saw Edmund and Winnie, so 1976, I remember being told it was Shipley but the house was above Bingley 5 rise, a relatively modern (by the standards of 1976) house. The type of house is accurate, the locations contradict...

Prior to David Lowe setting up. there was no suitable secure mooring at Shipley. Historically, going back to the 1920s and 30s for which I have copies of the canal company records, pleasure boats moored above Bingley, at Stockbridge, or at Skipton. There were a number of boathouses built by owners for the purpose, for which they paid an additional charge.

[ANDREW P]

Grey Dove may been built by Hainsworths  boatyard at Bingley, I remember a boat Pennine Navigator built by them in 1957 had a very similar hull shape. Would make sense to use a local boat builder.

[Ogwr]

On 09/12/2025 at 18:49, magpie patrick said:

 

This is where my memory may be at fault - I'd have been ten last time I saw Edmund and Winnie, so 1976, I remember being told it was Shipley but the house was above Bingley 5 rise, a relatively modern (by the standards of 1976) house. The type of house is accurate, the locations contradict...

Keighley is named on the back of Grey Dove which would suggest Bingley  as a probable base

[fanshaft]

On 09/12/2025 at 18:49, magpie patrick said:

 

This is where my memory may be at fault - I'd have been ten last time I saw Edmund and Winnie, so 1976, I remember being told it was Shipley but the house was above Bingley 5 rise, a relatively modern (by the standards of 1976) house. The type of house is accurate, the locations contradict...

Bingley makes more sense 

[1st ade]

22 hours ago, Ogwr said:

Keighley is named on the back of Grey Dove which would suggest Bingley  as a probable base

I vaguely recall Magpie the Elder (mine and @magpie patrick's father) saying we were "going to Uncle Edmonds at Keighley"; although that might have been convenient shorthand for "You know where Keighley is, you might not know Shipley"!